ABSTRACT

In the Bahamas, children born to undocumented migrants grow up without citizenship but are entitled to apply for it upon their eighteenth birthday. However, due to the stigma of having Haitian origin, Bahamians of Haitian descent continue to be othered racially and ethnically even after eventually becoming Bahamian citizens. In this essay, I argue that second-generation Haitian Bahamians are viewed as perpetual foreigners by mainstream Bahamians and continuously struggle to access the benefits of cultural and legal Bahamian citizenship. Structural and individual practices of ‘othering’ and exclusion have created notions of a two-tier system of citizenship in the Bahamas where some people are considered to be ‘real Bahamians’ and others are considered to be ‘paper Bahamians.’ Using semi-structured interviews with second-generation Haitian Bahamians with and without citizenship, participants reveal the ways they continue – or expect to continue – to experience discrimination and exclusion from Bahamian citizenship because of their Haitian ethnicity. Second-generation Haitians are often treated as perpetual foreigners and practices of individual and structural discrimination reproduce inequality and reflect the failure to fully integrate Haitians into Bahamian society.

摘要

在巴哈马，无证移民所生的孩子长大后没有公民身份，但有权在 18 岁生日时申请。然而，由于拥有海地血统的耻辱感，海地后裔的巴哈马人即使在最终成为巴哈马公民后仍继续在种族和族裔上被异化。在这篇文章中，我认为第二代海地巴哈马人被主流巴哈马人视为永远的外国人，并不断努力争取获得文化和法律巴哈马公民身份的好处。“他者化”和排斥的结构性和个人实践在巴哈马创造了两级公民制度的概念，其中一些人被认为是“真正的巴哈马人”，而另一些人被认为是“纸上的巴哈马人”。通过对拥有和不拥有公民身份的第二代海地巴哈马人进行半结构化访谈，参与者揭示了他们继续（或预期继续）因海地族裔而遭受巴哈马公民歧视和排斥的方式。第二代海地人经常被视为永远的外国人，个人和结构性歧视的做法再现了不平等现象，反映出海地人未能充分融入巴哈马社会。